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Dragon Ball (object)
A Dragon Ball is a fictional artifact from the Dragon Ball metaseries. They also appear in the Akira Toriyama manga Dragon Boy (the proto-Dragon Ball one-shot series). History of the Dragon Balls The Dragon Balls are orange, baseball-sized, crystalline spheres with the ability to call forth a colossal dragon, which has the ability to grant a wish. Dragon Balls come in sets of seven with each ball containing the number of stars that signifies its respective number in the set. Dragon balls are difficult to find because they are scattered all over the Earth (or few other planets who have their own set), and deactivated for a year after every wish, disguising themselves as stones. To have the opportunity to summon a dragon one must travel all over the globe to retrieve them. As technology progressed this became somewhat easier, especially with the help of an electronic detector invented by Bulma. Restrictions on the Dragons powers are set by the relative capabilities of the Dragon ball set's creator (in Earth's case it was Kami and later Dende). Earth's dragon, Shenron can grant a wish as long as it does not kill, create love or repeat a wish he previously granted. Legitimate wishes include eternal youth, bringing back a scorched forest or even an annihilated planet. Also, returning a person to life, although only if they meet certain criteria, like dying of unnatural causes within a year ago, and each individual can only be brought back once. One obstacle is that the Eternal Dragon will grant the first wish uttered, by whom ever present. Unlike the Dragon Balls of Earth, the approximately basketball-sized Dragon Balls of Planet Namek summon a different dragon, Porunga and can grant three wishes, due to their creation by Guru. Since the years on Namek are shorter (130 Earth days), they can also be used more frequently. However, Porunga is only capable of one individual's revival, whereas the eternal dragon of Earth can wish many, even an entire planet's population (if you can state your will in one wish). Additionally, the Namek Dragon Balls require the summoner to say a password before the dragon can be summoned (the password is Porunga). Sometime after settling on New Namek, the Namekian's decide to modified their existing Dragon balls, giving Porunga the ability to bring back to life as many people as needed (this was done as a reaction to their experiences dealing with Frieza). When Dende became the Earth's guardian he modified the burnt out Dragon balls created by Kami (which transformed into seven ordinary stones when Kami fused with Piccolo), giving Shenron the power to grant two wishes. In addition to this, Dende's Shenron can grant one wish and then have the second wish saved for a later time. This was shown in the Buu Saga, when one wish was made to revive all those killed by Majin Vegeta, and then Goku asked Shenron to save the second wish. Therefore, only four or so months after Kid Buu's defeat, another wish was made to erase the Earthling's memories of Buu. In Dragon Ball GT, the concept of "Black Star Dragon Balls" was introduced. This set of Dragon balls was created by Kami, in a time when the kindly guardian of the Earth had still not expelled his darker side in the form of Demon King Piccolo. Presumably because this Kami was not pure good and was much more powerful (since he had not dispelled his evil half) the Black Star Dragon Balls can summon a much more powerful Red Shenron, a mighty dragon that is not restricted as much as the normal Shenron(eg. Red Shenlong can kill a person if wished to). To counter this powerful improvement, the Black Star Dragonballs have two big downsides. First, when Red Shenron grants a wish the Black Star Dragonballs scatter across the galaxy, rather than the Earth. Secondly, the planet upon which Red Shenlong grants a wish will be destroyed in one year unless the Black Star Dragon Balls are returned to the aforesaid planet. Apart from this, unlike the Earth or Namekian Dragon Balls, the Black Star Dragon Balls never transform into stones and can be used as soon as they are scattered. Because of this, searching them becomes more of a headache as extra-terrestrial creatures also fight for their right to claim their wish. Our heroes Pan, Goku and Trunks had to fight against the Para brothers. Like many aspects of GT, some fans consider them non-canonical. There existence also may explain why Piccolo couldn't restore the Earth's regular Dragon Balls after refusing with Kami, as their fusing probably restored the Black Star Dragon Balls (meaning that the fused-Piccolo couldn't restore a different set of Dragon Balls (those originally created by Kami) other than his own (the Black Star Dragon Balls). Their existence does present a bit of a plot hole: If Piccolo created a whole different set of Dragon Balls while he was whole, why was he so surprised to learn about the Dragon Balls that Kami created when Pilaf told him about them? Furthermore, how did Emperor Pilaf find out about the Black Star Dragon Balls? Negative Energy and the Shadow Dragons Another concept introduced was the existence of negative energy in Dragon balls. According to the series, when ever a wish is made on the Dragon balls, an equal amount of negative energy is created along side the beneficial, wish granting energy. To prevent this energy from causing problems, the Dragon balls absorb this dark energy. As the dark energy stored in the Dragon balls disperse only after hundreds of years, and the Dragon Balls can only store a limited amount of it, the Dragon balls scatter across the planet, giving them time to dispel the dark energy (since it should, in theory, take centuries for someone to find all the Dragon balls and summon Shenron again). Unfortunately, this counter measure was proved near useless when Bulma invented the Dragon Radar, allowing the characters of DBZ to easily find the Dragon balls and summon Shenron many times. Eventually (during Dragon Ball GT) all seven Dragon balls were filled to full capacity, causing them to crack. When these damaged Dragon balls were used to summon Shenron to restore the Earth after Goku's battle with Super Android #17, the Dragon balls summoned years worth of dark energy instead, which manifested into an evil Black Smoke Shenron, who in turn swallowed the Dragon balls and split into seven lesser evil Shenrons. The problem with this, is why didn't Shenlong ever warn the Z fighters? Why didn't any character who suspected this, The Old Supreme Kai say anything? (Though Old Kai was about to say something about it, but was quickly hushed by Goku with the deal he made for Gohan to get training.) Wishes Granted Dragon Ball: *Oolong wishes for a pair of panties. (Brought forth Oceanus Shenron in Dragon Ball GT) *Goku wishes for Bora to be revived. (Brought Forth Haze Shenron in Dragon Ball GT) *King Piccolo wishes for his youth to be restored. (Brought forth Nuova Shenron in Dragon Ball GT) *Reviving everyone killed by King Piccolo and his children. (Brought forth Eis Shenron in Dragon Ball GT) Dragon Ball Z: Vegeta Saga: *Master Roshi wishes for Goku to be revived. (Brought forth Rage Shenron in Dragon Ball GT) Frieza Saga: *Dende, Gohan and Krillin wish for Piccolo's life to be restored. (Granted by Porunga) *Dende, Gohan and Krillin wish for Piccolo to be transported to Planet Namek. (Granted by Porunga) *Mr. Popo wishes for all those killed by Frieza and his henchmen in Namek brought back to life, Only most of the Namekians were brought back as another tribe was killed by Vegeta. (Granted by Shenron) *Dende wishes everyone on Namek to go to Earth except Goku and Frieza. (Granted by Porunga) *The Z-Fighters lives to be restored. (Granted by Porunga) Cell Saga: *A wish to revive all people killed by Cell and the other androids. *Krillin wished for the self-destruct bombs in #17 and #18 to be removed. (Granted by Dende's new Dragon balls) Majin Buu Saga: First it should be noted that Dende's Shenron does NOT follow the same rules as Kami's Shenron. Dende's Shenron is NOT the same Shenron that Kami made because when Piccolo and Kami fused it caused the Dragon balls and Shenron to no longer exsist. So therefore Dende's Shenron most likely has different limits than Kami's. Plus Kami's Shenron had only half his power because he was created from half of Piccolo instead of the whole. *Bulma's wish for all the good people who got killed by Majin Vegeta to be revived. (Granted by Shenron) (Brought forth Naturon Shenron in Dragon Ball GT) *A wish that would bring the planet Earth back (Granted by Porunga) *A wish that would bring all those killed since the morning of the Martial Arts Tournament back to life. (Granted by Porunga) *A wish to restore Goku's strength for the Spirit Bomb. (Granted by Porunga) *All memories of Majin Buu's havoc on Earth would be erased, except for Goku, the Z Fighters, and the other supporting characters. (Granted by Shenron) Dragon Ball GT: *Pilaf's wish for Goku to be turned into a child. (Granted by Red Shenron) *Bebi-Vegeta's wish for a new Planet Plant to be created and located near Earth, complete with buildings and plants. (Granted by Red Shenron) *A wish to restore the Earth after being destroyed by the side effects of using the Black Star Dragon balls. (Granted by Porunga) *A wish to revive all the people who were killed during the Super 17 and Evil Shenron Sagas. DragonBall Movies: Dragonball Movie 1: Curse of the Blood Rubies *Pansy's wish for the end of the rubies Dragonball Movie 3: Mystical Adventure *Goku wishes for Bora to be revived. Dragonball Tenth Anniversary Special: *Goku wishes for Shenron to rebuild Android 8 and remove the bomb inside him. Dragonball Z Movie 1: Dead Zone *Garlic Jr.'s wish for immortality. Dragonball Z Movie 2: The World's Strongest *Dr. Koichin wishes for Dr. Wheelo to be released from his icy prison. Dragonball Z Movie 3: Tree of Might *Bulma, Gohan and Krillin wish to restore the forest. Dragonball Z Movie 4: Lord Slug *Lord Slug wishes for his youth to be restored. Dragonball Z Movie 10: Broly, Second Coming *Goten wishes that his father were there, and an image of Goku appears; though this creates an interesting plot hole. First, Shenron doesn't appear when Goten tries to summon him; second the sky its even dark when the wish is made. Also at this point, Dende had powered up Shenron to grant two wishes, though when Goten asks to see Goku, the Dragon balls still scatter at the end of the movie. Note: Its possible that Shenron didn't appear due to the presense of the immensely powerful Broly, it is possible that Shenron may have sensed Broly's murderous intent and didn't appear as Broly would have probably destroyed Shenron if it had appeared (Broly would most likely have viewed the Dragon as an enemy). Shenron having been previously killed by King Piccolo, may not have been willing to risk destruction at the hands of Broly (who was far more powerful than King Piccolo). Shenron probably granted Goten's wish from within the Dragon Balls. As to why there was no second wish, Shenron could have possibly unable to grant a second wish due to the way in which Goten's wish was granted and/or he may not have had the energy for a second wish, do to possible temporary revivial of Goku (who already been revived by the Dragon Balls once). Dragonball Z Movie 12: Fusion Reborn *Shenron appears, but no wish is made, leading to a somewhat comedic ending, with Shenron saying "Is somebody going to make a wish or what?" Dragonball Z Movie 13: Wrath of the Dragon *Goku's wishes to unlock a box Gohan and Videl found. (Tapion was in it). Dragon Balls in other media In the manga Dragon Boy, Dragon Balls are small balls that appear very similar to the balls in the Dragon Ball series. However, instead of granting wishes, they can be opened using ki energy to release a small baby dragon that does not grant wishes. In the anime Puni Puni Poemi the main character makes a appearences with a collection of three dragon balls In the video game series Worms there is an attack called "Dragon Ball", being very similar to the Kamehameha. However, said attack is likely based on the Hadouken/Fireball from the Street Fighter series, as there is another attack called 'Fire punch', which resembles the Shoryuken/Dragon Punch from the same series. Worms will occasionally shout 'Shoryuken' when performing the fire punch, as well as donning a red head band in the style of the main character Ryu when doing both attacks. One should also note: Fireball and Dragon Punch in the SF series, and Fire Punch and Dragon Ball in Worms. Category:Objects